Before installing VCB and connecting the proxy host to the SAN you should disable automount via diskpart(cmd, diskpart, automount disable, automount scrub). When you don’t disable automount Windows will signature all “incoming” disks. When this happens the VMware hosts will not recognize the VMFS volumes anymore.

Open a command prompt on the VCB proxy server (The sever you installed VMware Consolidated Backup Framework) and type the following commands:-

diskpartautomount disableautomount scrub

Reboot the server

Configure the VCB proxy server so that it has shared access to ALL VMFS LUNs. If it is SAN storage then this needs to be done on the SAN disk array, if it is iSCSI storage then you need to download the Microsoft iSCSI initiator software, install it, then configure it to bind to the VMFS LUNs.

Install VMware VCB software on the server

Backup Exec Configuration Steps

Download VMware Veritas Backup Exec Integration drivers from http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/drivers_tools.html then unzip the file to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework. This will create a folder under that directory called backupexec.

Open a command prompt then navigate to the above directory C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework\backupexec then run install.bat

Accept the default path for the VCB installation folder by pressing Enter twice and typing Y on the Configuration Path question.

When prompted to review the configuration file, enter Y

There are three changes that will need to be made here. Modify the path to where the VM’s backup directory will reside. i) If using FullVM backup method this should be changed from the default of C:\mnt to separate LUN with sufficient space to accommodate the VM’s full size. If using file backup method then it is OK to leave this as the default value.

Enter the FQDN or IP address of the computer hosting the VMs. Normally this would be the FQDN of the VirtualCenter Server. Otherwise enter the FQDN or IP of the ESX server.

Enter the account and password used to access the Virtual Centre server or ESX server. i.e. Administrator & Password for VC server or root & Password for ESX server. NOTE: it will be displayed in clear text.Save and close.

Answer N to the reviewing of the second file and the Readme files.

Restart all Backup Exec Services from the Backup Exec console go to Tools > Backup Exec Services… > Restart all services close all windows when finished

Creating A Backup Job For VCB

There are two types of settings that have to be modified when using Backup Exec with VCB: When performing file-level incremental/differential backups, Backup Exec has to use timestamps. When performing full VM backups, you have to assure that Backup Exec does not time out while VCB exports virtual machines for backup.

To protect virtual machines, start by creating a new Backup Job:

Start the Backup Exec GUI

Click on the Job Setup tab, and then on New Job.

Point temporarily to any folder on your system (like C:\Windows).

Under Settings/General, chose one of the following Backup methods:* COPY – Back Up Files* FULL – Backup Up Files – Allow incrementals and differentials using modified time.* DIFFERENTIAL – Using modified time* INCREMENTAL – Using modified time* DAILY – files that Changed Today* WORKING SET – All files last accessed in (x) days

When picking your backup method, make sure that the option Use the Windows Change Journal if available is not set.

On the Settings/Advanced option, make sure that the option Back up files and directories by following junction points is selected.

Go to Frequency/Schedule and select the Submit job on hold to save the job and select Run Now

Go back to Source/Selections to add the target VM’s folders to backup. Before you can use the browsing capabilities of Backup Exec to add files or directories to your Backup Selection List, you have to manually mount the virtual machine’s disk images on the proxy (see: GUI Setup for Selection List Items ).

Under Pre-job command, enter"~vcb_path~\backupexec\pre-backup.bat" ~jobname~ ~vms~~vcb_path~ is the directory under which you installed VCB, while ~jobname~ is a unique identifier for this backup job. (You can use the same job name that you used under Settings/General when creating this job with Backup Exec.). ~vms~ is a list of virtual machines to be backed up. This is outlined in the next section. Note: Some versions of Backup Exec truncate the length of the command string to 255 characters, so this might limit the number of VMs you can back up in a single job.

Make sure that the job name used here matches the one specified on the pre-job command.

Next, make sure that each of the following options under Settings/Pre/Post Commands is selected:

Run job only if pre-job command is successful

Run post-job command only if pre-job command is successful

Run post-job command even if job fails

Allow pre and post-job commands to be successful only if completed with a return code of zero

Since for full virtual machine backup the virtual machine’s disk images have to be exported by the pre-backup script, you might have to increase the default timeout for pre/post job commands: Under Settings/Pre/Post Commands, you can set the timeout for the scripts under the option Cancel command if not completed within XX minutes.

Also, make sure that the option Run these commands is set to On each server backed up.

Adding Virtual Machines to Backup Jobs

Overview

Virtual machines to be protected by a particular Backup Job are identified by using a special convention for the entries in the Backup Selection List (under Source/Selections in the Backup Job Properties dialog). These entries also determine whether a full VM or a file-level backup is being performed.

There are three options for backing up virtual machine data. You can back up

all files and directories within a virtual machine’s disk(s),

only specific files or directories within a virtual machine’s disk(s), or

perform a full VM backup of the virtual machine.

There are two ways of adding appropriate entries to a Job’s Backup Selection List: You can either add the required entries manually or use Backup Exec’s GUI.

VCB Format for Entries in the Backup Selection List

Overview

An entry in the Backup Selection List for use with VCB has to conform to the following convention:

~backuproot~\~vm’s DNS Name~~suffix~

where

BACKUPROOTcorresponds to the value specified for BACKUPROOT in VCB’s config.js configuration file. (For example C:\mnt). VM’s DNS NameIs the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or IP address for the virtual machine to be protected. Suffixencodes the type (file/full VM) of backup as well as the list of files/directories to be backed up (if applicable). Possible values for Suffix are:

letters to back up all files and directories within a virtual machine’s disk(s).

letters\~drive~\~path~ to specify a particular file or directory within the virtual machine’s disk(s) to be backed up. (for example letters\C\Data)

-FullVM to perform a full VM backup.

Examples for Backup Selection List EntriesNote: This section assumes that your BACKUPROOT entry in config.js points to the directory C:\mnt.

Backing up all the files for virtual machine winxp-ceci.company.com:C:\mnt\winxp-ceci.company.com\letters

Note: Verify that you have enabled the Backup file and directories by following junction points option under the Job’s Settings/Advanced configuration settings. Backing up C:\Data from buvm01.eng.vmware.com:C:\mnt\buvm01.eng.vmware.com\letters\C\Data

Backing up C:\Documents And Settings and D:\oradata on dbserv.company.com:Add two entries to the Selection List:

C:\mnt\dbserv.company.com\letters\C\Documents And Settings

C:\mnt\dbserv.company.com\letters\D\oradata

Performing a full VM backup of myvm.company.com:

C:\mnt\myvm.company.com-FullVM

Manually Adding Selection List Items (no support for browsing for files and directories)Backup Selection List Items for data in virtual machines can be added to your Job in the following way:

Start the Backup Exec GUI

Under Job Setup, select the job you want to add selection list items to, and click on Properties

Select the Source/Selections tab in the Properties dialog. Switch the View Format to Text.

New files/directories can be added to the Selection List using the Advanced File Selection dialog. (Just click on Insert).

You also need to add all the virtual machines you have added backup jobs for in the Selection List to the argument list of your pre-backup script. To do so, go to Settings/Pre/Post Commands and add the DNS name of the new virtual machines you to the argument of the selection list. For example:

If you have added c:\mnt\myvm.company.com\letters\C to your backup selection list, you have to add myvm.company.com to the list of virtual machine arguments to the pre-backup script, if it is not already present.

If you have added c:\mnt\vm37.company.com-FullVM to your backup selection list, you have to add vm37.company.com-FullVM to the list of virtual machine arguments to the pre-backup script, if it is not already present.

Note: Some versions of Backup Exec will truncate the pre-backup command line to 255 characters. This might limit the amount of VMs you can back up in a single job.

GUI Setup for Selection List Items (with browsing support for files and directories)Before you can use the browsing capabilities of Backup Exec to add files or directories to your Backup Selection List, you have to manually mount the virtual machine’s disk images on the proxy:

Open a command shell and change to the BEIM install directory:

C:

cd "\Program Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup\backupexec"

Invoke the browse-start command specifying the Job name and the list of virtual machines you want to browse, for example:

browse-start.bat My_Job vm1.company.com vm2.company.com

This will snapshot the corresponding virtual machines and mount their disk images on the VCB proxy.

You can now use the Backup Exec GUI to add folders and files to backup. You can browse the selected virtual machine mount-points for files and folders and add them to your Job’s Backup Selection List.

You also need to add all the virtual machines you have added backup jobs for in the Selection List to the argument list of your pre-backup script. To do so, go to Settings/Pre/Post Commands and add the DNS name of the new virtual machines you to the argument of the selection list. For example:

If you have added c:\mnt\myvm.company.com\letters\C to your backup selection list, you have to add myvm.company.com to the list of virtual machine arguments to the pre-backup script, if it is not already present.

If you have added c:\mnt\vm37.company.com-FullVM to your backup selection list, you have to add vm37.company.com-FullVM to the list of virtual machine arguments to the pre-backup script, if it is not already present

Basically, these are the same arguments you used to specify for browse-start in the command line.

When you are done browsing, you have to unmount and delete the virtual machine snapshots created in step (2). This is done by using thebrowse-end command. You have to specify the name of the Job you were editing:

browse-end.bat My_Job

Warning: Using the browse feature for a particular virtual machine while this virtual machine is being backed up is not supported. Doing this can result in the backup to fail.

Note: Performing a file level backup and a full VM backup of the same virtual machine in the same backup job is not supported.

Backup Exec uses a slightly different approach to restore: You can deploy the Backup Exec Remote Agent in one or more virtual machines and then push files to be restored into these virtual machines directly from the VCB proxy.

You can also restore files on the backup proxy onto a shared network drive that both the backup proxy and the virtual machine have access to. Next, copy the restored files back in place from within the virtual machine.